In which I claim never to get sick

But then do. I went on a bit of a book buying spree last week. First, I allowed myself into Forbidden Planet for the first time in a few years since I can do as much damage there as in any yarn shop. I felt compelled to buy three volumes of Hellboy and two of Preacher and other miscellany (although I emerged toy free). And then continued this mindless rampage at Barnes and Noble where I discussed colds with the cashier and proudly complained that I never get to use my sick time because I never get sick (although it had been eleven years for her to my three).

Fast forward to Sunday when I felt a little less than 100%. But I figured it was hot in my apartment and what was the big deal if I didn't feel much like eating? And coughing? It's so dry in apartments in winter so that's not completely abnormal. I wake up on Monday a little later than usual. Feel a little less than, but still go to work. That's when everything falls into place, of course. The coughing, the sneezing, the aching, the can barely stand up. By evening, with the train running later than usual, I feel completely awful. But I still go home and make this soup.
Because I'm sick. And I want soup. And Amy's Unchicken Noodle is not gluten free. And there's no one to make it for me. You know, whine ad nauseum.

And I was clearly delirious given that I took pictures. Of my food. Even with my temperature at 101. So I had my soup and some tea and a good long sleep and by morning I was right as rain (and a tad disappointed, mind you). There it was. My one true sick day and I had squandered it. I had actually been looking forward to lazing around on my futon sofa watching trashy talk TV and reading comic books (the only options as, by the end of day one, I really felt to weak to knit or crochet), but the moment had passed me by.


But even though I had no one to make me soup and was too delirious to call in sick, I did get to enjoy one good post-sick ritual. The first return to real food. Mushroom-pepper quesadillas and a spinach salad. Sivvie-cat gave it two nose licks.

Hooked

I never thought crochet would take. I've had that Debbie Stoller book for ages. I've tried working from it a few times, but got frustrated and put it down. The problem, I found, was that since I already knit, I couldn't be bothered to crochet. While I've heard crochet can be faster than knitting, I was crawling along, none too sure I was doing anything right. But then it happened. Flipping through Simple Crochet again, I became inspired by the beauty of the crochet stitch. I had a tiny hook and some leftover Rowan Cotton Glace already on hand. So I brought it to work and started. Well, this time it stuck.

I've found I really love the rhythm of crochet. There's something about it that's soothing. It's much easier to do on the train. If your hook falls out, it's really no big deal -- you don't tend to lose too much work. It's easy to back up if you make a mistake. Some of the beauty of learning to crochet, though, is the fact that I'm learning. When knitting, I feel compelled to make everything perfect. But since I'm new to crochet, I'm allowed to make mistakes. That circle up above is a little wonky because I put in too many increases (I chose not to follow a pattern to really liberate me). That blanket for Sivvie -- the cat, who claimed it before I even told her it was hers -- is from a pattern. I don't think it's rippling quite as I expected and it's not a square as much as it is a trapezoid right now, but I'm learning and loving it.

Throw Out the Pot

Whether in books, film, art, I've always appreciated creative types who love to experiment. Even if the finished product isn't perfect, I still prefer it to something created by someone who always plays it safe. But when it comes to food, I've been hesitant to push things too far. Food has a different kind of purpose though, and the possibility that I might have to throw out a whole pot of something terrifies me. So, this past week involved a bit of food, both safe and unsafe.

BBQ Pomegranate Tofu with spinach and coconut-wasabi mashed potatoes. When I first noticed this recipe in Vegan With a Vengeance, I was all over it. Then I noticed the tomato paste. I decided to attack this recipe anyway since pomegranate is quickly becoming my favorite fruit. I subbed out about 1/4 c. of soaked, pureed chipotle peppers. Oh, my. While very tasty, it was incredibly spicy. Next time I think I have to add 1/2 cup of pureed roasted red peppers. And a note on the mashed potatoes -- I am to much of a baby to use full fat (and usually, even light) coconut milk. So I usually cheat and add coconut extract to soy milk.


Ancho Lentil Gravy with Flax Hemp Biscuits and Steamed Broccoli. I'm always on the lookout for a great lentil soup. The last one that really moved me was in Shape or Self magazine years ago. It's winning addition -- mustard and balsamic vinegar. So when I saw Isa's Ancho Lentil Soup, I had to try it. Not only is it a fantastic soup (the pineapple is genious), when I was down to the last little bit I was able to convert it into a great gravy with the addition of a little soy milk and nutritional yeast.


Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy (from Vegan with a Vengeance). Yes, there are other things on the plate, but the real star is the gravy. My disclaimer: I love gravy. I'm always on the lookout for good gravy. This stuff is the real deal. It lasted just over a day as I felt compelled to pour it on everything I ate. I will certainly be making this again. Soon. In a larger vat-like quantity.


Lemon-tarragon stuffed tofu with yukon potatoes, hijiki, asparagus and hazelnut picada. This was an experiment that didn't quite turn out as I initially imagined. Originally, I had wanted to boil the tofu in dulse flakes which, go figure, I couldn't find anywhere. So I dumped a package of hijiki and a few pieces of kombu in the water and let it simmer for an hour or so and then, due to a surprise visitor, ended up letting it sit in the liquid for 24 hours before baking. It turned the tofu a gorgeous bluish-purple color on the outside but the sea taste I was going for was subtle, to say the least. Despite that it wasn't what I was expecting, it was still pretty good. I tossed the thinly sliced potatoes on the bottom of a glass dish. Quickly breaded and pan fried the tofu, split it and stuffed it thinly sliced lemons and tarragon. Added lemon juice, olive oil and sea salt to the potatoes, covered them with the hijiki that had been soaking with the tofu and then placed the tofu on top. Covered the whole thing with aluminum foil and let it bake. The hazelnut picada topping came from a New York Times seafood recipe, but in typical NYT fashion, it appears to already be gone from their site. It was particularly wonderful, even though I used leftover gluten-free biscuits that had a shade too much baking powder.


Chickpeas and potatoes with chapati croutons and collard greens in a coconut-peanut sauce. The deli around the corner from me carries these little spice packages called simmer sauces. As I was feeling it was a lazy Friday evening, I decided to see how they worked up. The sauce package I used for the chickpea-potato dish contained amchoor, which I've only found at one hfs and in that case, it was made by one of the raw companies and was, I suspect, much more expensive than it would be at one of the Indian spice places. I had it with, ahem, chapati croutons. The recipe from the Food Allergy Survival Guide contains a nice bit of coconut oil for the fat, which I never have around because I'm iffy on adding that much coconut oil to my food. Usually, I bind them with olive oil which makes them tasty, if not puffy like the originals. Since I had bought some shortening to make cupcakes, I decided to make an attempt at using the palm oil-based shortening (no, I'm not real big on palm oil, either) in the chapatis, figuring it would be closest to coconut oil. When the first one broke into pieces in the pan, you think I would have learned my leason. These chapati croutons are from a second, independent attempt at subbing the shortening. Good, but yeah . . .
Brown basmati rice with fruits, veggies and cashews, tzatziki sauce and mint-cilantro chutney. The basmati rice also had the addition of a different simmer sauce packet. I bought mostly because it had rose petals in it. This was spicy, but the dried apricot and cashews in the rice and tzatziki sauce helped to balance it out.


Nachos: Because sometimes you're good and sometimes you're not. Does the fact that there's broccoli, spinach and red and yellow peppers tucked in here excuse the fact that these are nachos? I used the Follow Your Heart cheddar. I find this stuff odd. Microwave it and the "cheese" is all melty in 40 seconds or less. But put it in the oven . . . I even drizzled extra oil over top because I've heard that can help. Meh. I put some on my plate and popped it in the microwave. Perfection. I think in the future, though, I might just skip the FYH. It's expensive, has never done for me what it's supposed to do best, and I'm just as happy with the miscellaneous uncheese nacho sauces out there. It's just that the FYH lets you feel like you are being bad.

Anthropologie Lust

I will not try to pretend. I love Anthropologie. I love the life they try to sell me. Maybe because it helps me forgive the cracks in my bedroom and living room walls and the missing tile on the rise to my . . . picturesque bathroom. But right now it's all about the clothes. They're too pricey for me and a good lot of them aren't vegan (especially those winter sweaters), but a girl can dream.
I know better than to don a bubble dress. In fact, the only thing I have ever tried on at Anthropologie that I was kind of meh about was a bubble dress. I have hopes that the red one's name is just a pattern thing.
Similarly, I'm quite convinced that the blue jacket up left needs a rail thin chick and there's a possibility that the pantaloon-style dress would just look awful. But there's something about them.
And oh, the greens. I can't say that I love everything about the peacock tee, but it is so representational of the colors I've been feeling and knitting lately.

Mmmm. But red really is my favorite color. Rumor has it Drew Barrymore left the vegan flock because of the shoes. Why is it so hard to find vegan shoes in such fantastic colors? Outside of sneakers, they're mostly black, brown or olive green. I want head to toe color. I suppose this means a cobbling class for me.

And lastly, how much am I feeling all the yellow? I want to spend all summer in that sweet chemise on the bottom, sweating in the dank humidity of my air conditioning-free apartment. And drinking mint juleps. Or something like that. But that strapless black, white and yellow number is my all time absolute favorite of the new catalog. I told myself that even if I can afford nothing else from Anthropologie for the rest of the year, this was the one.

Sweets for My Sweet

In this case, me (as I have no delusions that I have any readers). And, to a certain degree, my office mates to keep the chub in check.

In early January, while wading through old Cream Puffs in Venice posts, I came across a link to a recipe for Hazelnut Sandwich Cookies from Emily Luchetti's A Passion for Desserts that sounded divine. I thought it looked as if it would veganize fairly easily. Unfortunately, I also thought I had read years ago that Rapunzel hazelnut chocolate spread was vegan. If it ever was, it is no longer. So this time through I used a simply ganache and stirred in chopped hazelnuts. Next time I'll be making my own Nutella.

But perhaps the most exciting sweet are these:



These are from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Now, Isa said something about the mint icing really needing the ganache to pull it all together, but I have to say that I was piping the icing directly into my mouth. I'm not traditionally a fan of buttercream-style icings, but this stuff is awesome.

Lazy Weekend

I'd love to pretend that it's atypical for me to spend a weekend sacked out on my couch with a stack of books, magazines, yarn and needles growing beside me, but this blog is Bottle and Ball for a reason. I'm not much of a people person. Or rather they intimidate me. Or I have social anxiety. Or something like that. So, much like when I was a child, I spend a lot of time alone.





It almost disturbs me how childlike this pose is. But I love the stockings. Really, I do. They're like grownup athletic socks. Now I can stop stealing my daddy's.


Oh how it grows and grows. And oh how sneaky am I, using the darkest picture so my booboo is nearly invisible (although it is the closest to its true color).

With the new issue of Interweave Knits around the corner, we have a victor as to IK pattern-to -be-knit. I love the first one, but it's going to be the second in Calmer since, unlike the Eunny Jang pattern, this one has extra stitches already built into the pattern for steeking. Besides, I have a frightening number of odd balls of Calmer tucked into various corners of my apartment.



Lastly, it's sad to have just cast on for another pair of stockings when the newest Anthropologie catalog arrives and to realize that you really want to be making a pair of herringbone stockings instead. I will make herringbone stockings before the weather warms. I will.



And the above is a sneak peek of yummy things to come.

And, this post is a bit of a mess, but I find it so difficult to get onto Blogger that I feel obligated to choke this post out.

Cozy Weekend

With the temperatures dipping down to unbearable, I settled in this weekend, hoping to get a lot accomplished. Seaport had saved the day by providing the yarn for my legwarmers. If only I could remember what the heck I did with my 6 dpns. While I would have loved to go back out and get them, I know mine are in my apartment somewhere. Perhaps buried under the mountain of books? Now that I bought a new cordless drill I have fantasies of fixing up that mess. Should I be insulted that the guy at the hardware store started to expain to me how to use it while he was ringing me up? I know. I know. I was knitting in the store. But it's a small place and there were only two employees and they were well occupied by people who were already in the store. But what was I supposed to do? Just stand there?

So, the leg warmers were out, but number one of the Norwegian Stockings from Folk Socks was grafted shut midway through my anti-Super Bowl Kurosawa minifest.



I decided to go down a size for needles as I was getting gauge on the foot and instep with the Fixation on 2's. I should have used the 3's the pattern recommended. They fit lovely once on, but they are a little snug while trying to get them on. There's not quite enough give to get the narrowest part up over my heel onto my ankle without a small fight. That said, they're lovely and my boss expects to be out for two days this week, so hopefully they will be a set by the end of the work week.

Dreaming of Stockings

Now that I've finished a good set of thigh high stockings I'm feeling emboldened. I've got it in my mind to knit every pair of socks and stockings in Folk Socks. I was lucky that a very special friend works in a small bookshop and gave it to me as a welcome home present for my post-holiday return. I've started with the Norwegian stockings (which I first fell in love with, I believe, on Eunny Jang's site), which are off to a lovely start, but am a little concerned that Cascade Fixation won't work for a lot of the socks, some of which are knit on 000's. So, here's hoping I find a yarn to work for the more delicate pieces in book. Otherwise, I'll have to completely rework them.

Speaking of Eunny Jang, I finally picked up the Winter 2006 issue of Interweave Knits. Her Venezia Pullover and Véronik Avery's Enid Cardigan were my favorite of the bunch. And, of course, they both involve steeking. I'm a little concerned about steeking with vegan fibers. Even Interweave's article on steeking says that fibers with animal protein tend to felt slightly as they're being knitted, which makes them even less prone to unravel. So what happens with protein-free fibers? I don't know if I even want to sacrifice a swatch for this.

Lastly, the Seaport Yarn website says they carry Mission Falls yarn, so hopefully they'll have what I need to finish the second legwarmer, and I'll be able to save The Point for another, more pleasant weekend. With the weather potentially turning nasty for the commute home, I'd rather go home and curl up instead.

I Can

Perhaps I shouldn't gloat yet. I finished the final toe decreases one short subway stop away from work, slipped the stitches onto the stitch markers and cast on for a new pair of stockings. I felt very cool, like when you finish one book on the subway and whip out a second -- sort of like, I read so much I have to carry extra books around with me. Except now I don't read quite as much, and my extra book is for those times I'm wearing heels on the subway and can't find a suitable place to knit. But this is the second one, nearly all done except for grafting the toe shut (something I did not have the stomach to do on the train and won't do at work either, because I need to be alone where I can make really funny faces).

There is more in the works, too.

Remember the legwarmers I was not supposed to start? I did. But I showed me. I decided to double the Mission Falls 1824 Cotton I bought over at the Point. Since it was an unplanned acquisition, I will need four more balls to finish up the second one (first one started Thursday night, finished Saturday by the time Chaotic was over -- I have somewhat defected from the WB morning lineup, but that's really too painful for me to discuss now). I have to pop into Seaport Yarn tomorrow at lunch, so I'm hoping she has it. If not, it's a great excuse to go to the Point again (although I have a discount there that will automatically kicks in for this purchase and I'm loathe to use it to purchase four measly balls of 1824). I really want the second to be done yesterday, because I spent an hour last Saturday modeling just the one.